V. I. Lenin

Instructions of the Council of Labour and Defence To Local Soviet
    Bodies[1]

Written:21 May,
    1921First Published:1921; Published according to the
    text of the pamphlet collated with the manuscriptSource:Lenin’sCollected Works, 1st English
    Edition, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1965,Volume 32, pages 375-398Translated:Yuri SdobnikovTranscription\HTML Markup:David
    Walters&R.
    CymbalaCopyleft:V. I. Lenin Internet Archive
    (www.marx.org) 2002. Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this
    document under the terms of theGNU Free Documentation
    License

The primary task of the Soviet Republic is to restore the
    productive forces and revive agriculture, industry and transport. The ruin
    and impoverishment caused everywhere by the imperialist war are so vast
    that an economic crisis is raging throughout the world, and even in the
    advanced countries, which before the war were way ahead of Russia in their
    development and which suffered much less from the war than she did,
    economic rehabilitation is proceeding with enormous difficulty and will
    take many long years. This situation prevails even in many of the
    “victor” countries, despite the fact that they are allied with
    the richest capitalist powers and are exacting a fat tribute from the
    defeated, dependent and colonial countries.

Backward Russia, which in addition to the imperialist war endured more
    than three years of civil war, imposed upon the workers and peasants by the
    landowners and capitalists with the help of the world bourgeoisie,
    naturally finds the difficulties of economic rehabilitation so much more
    formidable. The heavy crop failure in 1920, the lack of fodder and the loss
    of cattle have had a disastrous effect on peasant farming.

In conformity with the law passed by the All-Russia Central Executive
    Committee, a tax in kind has been substituted for the surplus appropriation
    system. The farmer is free to exchange his surplus produce for various
    goods. The tax rates have been announced by order of the Council of
    People’s Commissars. The tax amounts to approximately one-half of the
    produce obtained under the surplus appropriation system. The Council of
    People’s Commissars has issued a new law on the co-operative
    societies giving them wider powers in view of the free exchange of surplus
    farm produce.

These laws have done a great deal for the immediate improvement of the
    condition of peasant farming and stimulation of peasant interest in
    enlarging the area under crop and improving methods of farming and
    livestock breeding. They have also done much to help revive and develop
    small local industry which can do without the procurement and
    transportation of large state stocks of food, raw materials and fuel.

Particularly great importance now attaches to independent local
    initiative in improving peasant farming, developing industry and
    establishing exchange between agriculture and industry. Great opportunities
    are being created for the application of new forces and fresh energy to the
    work of restoring the country ‘s economy.

The Council of Labour and Defence, upon whom, in pursuance of the
    decision of the Eighth All-Russia Congress of Soviets, devolves the duty of
    co-ordinating and directing the activity of the People’s
    Commissariats for the various sectors of the economy, insistently urges all
    local bodies to do their utmost to develop extensive activities for the
    all-round improvement of peasant farming and the revival of industry, in
    strict conformity with the new laws and in the light of the fundamental
    propositions and instructions given below.

We now have two main criteria of success in our work of economic
    development on a nation-wide scale. First success in the speedy, full and,
    from the state point of view, proper collection of the tax in kind; and
    second—and this is particularly important—success in the
    exchange of manufactured goods for agricultural produce between industry
    and agriculture.

This is most vital, urgent and imperative. It will put all our efforts
    to the test and lay the foundations for implementing our great
    electrification plan, which will result in the restoration of our
    large-scale industry and transport to such proportions and on such a
    technical basis that we shall overcome starvation and poverty once and for
    all.

We must collect 100 per cent of the tax in kind, and, in addition, an
    equal quantity of food products through the free exchange of surplus farm
    produce for manufactured goods. Of course, this will not be achieved
    everywhere all at once, but it should be our short-term goal. We can
    achieve it in a very short time if we take the right view of the state of
    our economy and put our hearts into reviving it the right way. All local
    authorities and bodies in everygubernia, uyezd, regional centre
    and autonomous republic must join forces and co-ordinate their efforts to
    stimulate the exchange of surplus produce. Experience will show how far we
    can do this by increasing the output and delivery of goods made by the
    state in the big socialist factories. It will show how far we succeed in
    encouraging and developing small local industry, and what part will be
    played in this by the co-operative societies and the private traders,
    manufacturers and capitalists who are under state control. We must try out
    every method, giving the utmost scope to local initiative. The new task
    before us has never been tackled anywhere else before. We are trying to
    solve it in the conditions of post-war ruin, which prevent any precise
    estimation of our resources or of the effort we can expect of the workers
    and peasants, who have made such incredible sacrifices to defeat the
    landowners and capitalists. We must be bolder in widely applying a variety
    of methods and taking different approaches, giving rein to capital and
    private trade in varying degree, without being afraid to implant some
    capitalism, as long as we succeed in stimulating exchange at once and
    thereby revive agriculture and industry. We must ascertain the country
    ‘s resources by practical experience, and determine the best way to
    improve the condition of the workers and peasants to enable us to proceed
    with the wider and more fundamental work of building up the economy and
    implementing the electrification plan.

The two main questions to which every Soviet official engaged in
    economic work must pay attention are: how much of their surplus farm
    produce, over and above the tax, have the peasants exchanged for the
    manufactures of small industry and private trade, and how much for
    manufactured goods provided by the state? These are the main lines to
    follow over the short haul in order to achieve the greatest results. They
    will provide the success indicators and enable us to decide on the
    subsequent tasks. Every aspect of economic construction in general must be
    geared to these two immediate tasks.

To attain this co-ordination, encourage local initiative, enterprise and
    large-scale operations to the utmost, and make sure that central bodies are
    guided by local experience and local supervision, and vice versa, thereby
    eliminating red tape and bureaucratic practices, the Council of Labour and
    Defence has ordered (see text of the order) that:

first, regular economic conferences should be convened in all districts
    for the purpose of co-ordinating the work .of the local departments of all
    the People’s Commissariats for the various sectors of the
    economy;

second, proper records of the local economic conferences should be kept
    to facilitate the pooling of experience and the organising of emulation,
    and mainly, to utilise the work of the local organisations and its results
    as a means of checking up on the methods and organisation of the central
    bodies.

The local economic conferences should be organised on the lines of the
    C.L.D. (Council of Labour and Defence) and their relationship with the
    local executive committees should be similar to those between the C.L.D.
    and the Council of People’s Commissars. The C.L.D. functions as a
    commission of the Council of People’s Commissars. The appointment of
    members of the Council of People’s Commissars to the C.L.D. ensures
    the fullest co-ordination of the work of both bodies, eliminates the
    possibility of any friction between them, expedites matters and simplifies
    procedures. Having no staff of its own, the C.L.D. utilises that of various
    government departments, striving to simplify their procedures and
    co-ordinate their operations.

guberniaeconomic councils should stand in the same
    relationship to theguberniaexecutive committees, and that is the
    actual trend in practice. The C.L.D., in confirming the appointment of
    members and chairmen of regional and territorial economic councils, strives
    to take account of the experience of local workers and consults with them
    on all its confirmations. The regional economic councils must certainly
    strive, and will continue to strive, to co-ordinate their work with that of
    theguberniaeconomic councils, securing their fullest
    co-operation, keeping them informed and stimulating their interest. This is
    hardly the time to try to reduce these relationships to a set of
    regulations, for experience is still very short and any such attempt might
    result in a purely bureaucratic exercise. It is far more appropriate to
    allow practice to determine initially the most suitable form of
    relationship (the C.L.D. worked side by side with the Council of People
    ‘s Commissars for about a year, virtually without a constitution).
    Let these forms be at first not absolutely stable: variety is desirable,
    useful and even necessary to enable us to make a more precise study and a
    fuller comparison of the various systems of relationships.

Uyezd andvolosteconomic councils should-be organised on the
    same lines, naturally with a lot of leeway in modifying the main type, that
    is, the executive committees may assume all the functions and duties of the
    economic conferences, convert their own “executive” or
    “economic” meetings into economic conferences, appoint (say, in
    thevolosts and sometimes in theuyezds) special
    committees or even individuals to exercise all or some of the functions of
    the economic conferences, and so on and so forth. The village committees
    should be the bottom rung and should operate as the lower units of the
    C.L.D. in the rural districts. The Council of People’s Commissars has
    already passed a law, issued in May 1921, which gives thevillage
    committeeswider powers and defines their relationship with the
    village Soviets. Theguberniaexecutive committees must draw up
    provisional regulations suitable for the given locality which, however,
    must not restrict, but givethe greatest possible scopeto
    “local” initiative in general, and that of the lowest unitsin particular.

In industrialuyezdsand settlements, the district committees
    and factory committees, or the management boards of factories, should serve
    as the lower units of the C.L.D., depending on whether one or more branches
    of industry are being dealt with. In any case,co-operationwith
    theuyezdexecutive committees,volostexecutive committees
    and village committees in directingalllocal economic life is
    absolutely essential in one form or another.

Furthermore, it is exceptionally important that local organisations
    should submit to the C.L.D. regular and precise information on their
    activity, for one of our main evils is the inadequate study of practical
    experience, inadequate exchange of experience and mutual
    control—putting orders from the centre to the test of local
    experience, and subjecting local work to control by the centre. One of the
    most important means of combating bureaucratic practices and red tape
    should be to check the way the laws and orders from the centre are carried
    out locally, and this requires the printing ofpublicreports,
    withnon-Party peopleand people not working in the departments
    necessarilytaking a greater hand. Nashe Khozyaistvo, “the
    fortnightly journal of the TverguberniaEconomic Council”
    (No. 1, April 15, 1921; No. 2, April 30, 1921), is evidence that the local
    need to study, elucidate and publicise the results of our economic
    experience is being realised and satisfied the correct way. It will not be
    possible, of course, to publish a journal in everygubernia, not
    within the next few months, at any rate; nor will it be possible everywhere
    to have a fortnightly printing of 3,000 copies, as is the case in Tver. But
    everygubernia, and everyuyezdeven, can—and
    should—compile a report on local economic activities once every two
    months (or initially at longer intervals, by way of exception) and issue it
    in a printing of, say, 100 to 300 copies. The paper and the printing
    facilities for such a small operation will surely be found everywhere,
    provided we realise its urgency and importance, and see the necessity to
    satisfy this need by taking the paper from many of the departments which
    print a mass of useless and hardly urgent material. The copy could be set
    up in small type and printed in two columns (as the comrades in Tver are
    doing); the feasibility and urgency of this will be quite clear if we
    realise the simple truth that even a hundred copies, distributed one to
    everygubernialibrary and all the major state libraries, will
    provide a source of information forthe whole of Russia, which may
    perhaps be scanty butsure, and will serve as a record of
    experience.

These reports must be published regularly, even if in small printings,
    in order to maintain a proper record of experience, and actually pool it,
    and enlist all the prominent and capable organisers among the non-Party
    people. This is something we can and must do immediately.

When drawing up the reports, the questions put must be answered as
    briefly and precisely as possible. The questions fall into four groups, the
    first being those especially prominent at the present time. They must be
    answered in every report with the maximum precision and in the greatest
    detail. That is particularly necessary because this group of questions is
    extremely vital and urgent for mostuyezdsat this very moment.
    Other questions will come to the fore for the smaller part of theuyezdsand districts, that is, the purely industrial ones. The
    second group consists of questions which must also be answered in every
    report, but the answers can and should frequently be given in the form of
    brief summaries of reports already submitted to the government departments
    concerned. In all such cases, the reports to the C.L.D. must give: the
    dates on which the reports were sent off; the departments to which they
    were sent; and a brief summary of the reports in figures. The C.L.D.
    requires such reports for supervision over the various departments, as well
    as for the totals indicating the results in food supplies, fuel, industry,
    and so forth. The third group contains questions that need not be answered
    in every report. The answers to these questions must be given initially,
    that is, in the first report, but subsequent reports should add only the
    supplementary and new information as it accumulates. In many cases, there
    will be nothing to report at all on these questions every two months. The
    fourth group consists of miscellaneous, supplementary questions, which are
    not indicated in advance; they are not formulated by the centre but arise
    locally. This group must be compiled by the local bodies, and is not
    limited in any-way. It goes without saying that questions pertaining to
    state secrets (army, or such as are connected with military operations,
    security, etc.) must be answered in special reports not for publication,
    but intended exclusively for the C.L.D. as confidential reports.

Here is a list of these questions:

First Group Of Questions

1. Commodity Exchange With The Peasantry

At present, this question ranks first in importance and urgency. First,
    the state cannot carry on any economic development unless the army and the
    urban workers have regular and adequate supplies of food; the exchange of
    commodities must become the principal means of collecting foodstuffs.
    Secondly, commodity exchange is a test of the relationship between industry
    and agriculture and the foundation of all our work to create a fairly well
    regulated monetary system. All economic councils and all economic bodies
    must now concentrate on commodity exchange (which also includes the
    exchange of manufactured goods, for the manufactured goods made by
    socialist factories and exchanged for the foodstuffs produced by the
    peasants are not commodities in the politico-economic sense of the word; at
    any rate, they are not only commodities, they are no longer commodities,
    they are ceasing to be commodities).

What preparations have been made for commodity exchange? What has been
    done specifically to prepare for it? By the Commissariat for Food? By the
    co-operative societies? The number of co-operative shops available for this
    purpose? Are there such shops in everyvolost? In how many
    villages? Stock of goods for commodity exchange? Prices on the
    “free” market? Surplus stocks of grain and other farm produce?
    Is there any, and how much, experience in commodity exchange? Totals and
    results? What is being done to prevent the pilferage of goods stocks
    earmarked for exchange, and of food stocks (a particularly important point
    demanding investigation ofevery caseof pilferage)?

Salt and paraffin oil as articles for commodity exchange? Textiles?
    Other goods? What items are needed most? What are the chief peasant
    shortages? What can be supplied by local, small, handicraft industry? Or by
    developing local industry?

Facts and figures showing how commodity exchange is organised and the
    results achieved are most important for the conduct of the experiment on a
    country-wide scale.

Has the proper relationship been established between the Commissariat
    for Food, the body controlling and supervising commodity exchange, and the
    co-operative societies, the bodies carrying on commodity exchange? How does
    this relationship operate in practice? In each locality?

What part does private trade play in commodity exchange? To what extent
    is private trade developing, or developed? Number of private traders; their
    turnover in the major items, particularly foodstuffs?

2. The State’s Attitude To The Capitalists

Commodity exchange and freedom of trade inevitably imply the appearance
    of capitalists and capitalist relationships. There is no reason to fear
    this. The workers’ state has enough resources to keepwithin the
    proper boundsand control these relationships, which are useful and
    necessary in conditions of small-scale production. The thing to do at
    present is to make a close study of their dimensions and devise suitable
    methods (not restrictive, or rather, not prohibitive) of state control and
    accountancy.

To what extent is private trade developing as a result of the
    substitution of the tax for the surplus appropriation system? Can it be
    estimated or not? Is it only profiteering or regular trade as well? Is it
    registered, and if so, what are the results?

Private enterprise: have there been any offers from capitalists and
    entrepreneurs to lease enterprises or establishments, or commercial
    premises? Exact number of such offers and an analysis of them? How are the
    results of trading operations assessed (if only approximately)? Ditto as
    regards the accounts of leaseholders and commission agents, if any?

Have there been any offers from commission agents? To buy produce for
    the state on a commission basis? Or to market and distribute it? Or to
    organise industrial enterprises?

Handicraft industry: changes since the introduction of the tax in kind?
    Extent of development? Source of information?

3. Encouragement Of Enterprise In Commodity Exchange,And In Economic Development In General

This question is closely bound up with the preceding one. The
    encouragement of initiative may often prove to have no connection with
    capitalist relationships. All economic councils and economic bodies in
    general should ask them- selves: how is this to be encouraged? In view of
    the novelty of the task, it is scarcely possible to issue any definite
    instructions at present. The thing is to pay great attention to the
    question, encourage all initiative in economic matters, make a careful
    study of practical experience and let the country know what is being
    done.

When the small farmer pays his tax to the state and enters into
    commodity exchange with it (with the socialist factory) the economic
    situation created imperatively demands that the state, through its local
    bodies, should give all possible encouragement to enterprise and
    initiative. The exchange of the observations and experience of local bodies
    will enable us to collect material, and later on, perhaps, to supplement
    this general and inadequate formulation of the question with a number of
    examples and detailed instructions.

4. Co-Ordination Of The Economic WorkOf Various Departments In The Local Administrative Areas:volosts,uyezdsAndgubernias

One of the great evils hindering our economic development is the absence
    of co-ordination in the work of the various local departments. Great
    attention must be devoted to this question. It is the function of the
    economic councils to eliminate this flaw and to stimulate the enterprise of
    local bodies. There must be a collection of practical examples to secure
    improvements and hold out the successful cases as a model for all. During
    the extreme food shortage, for instance, it was natural and inevitable that
    local bodies should be highly restricted in making decisions on the use of
    grain collected. As grain stocks increase, and under appropriate control,
    they must have a freer hand to do so. This can and should help to reduce
    red tape, cut down haulage of goods, encourage production and improve the
    condition of the workers and peasants. The food supply, small local
    industry, fuel, large-scale state industry, etc., are all bound up
    together, and their necessary division into “departments” for
    the purposes of state administration will cause harm unless constant
    efforts are made to co-ordinate them, remove friction, red tape,
    departmental narrow-mindedness and bureaucratic methods. The local bodies,
    which are closer to the mass of workers and peasants, have a better view of
    these defects, and it is therefore their business to devise methods of
    eliminating them by pooling their experience.

It is absolutely essential that definite, careful and detailed replies
    should be submitted to the following question: What has been done and how
    to co-ordinate the activity of the local state farms, timber
    committees,uyezdland departments, economic councils, and so
    forth?

How are officials penalised for satisfying local requirements to the
    detriment of the centre and in violation of orders from the centre? The
    names of those penalised? Is the number of such offences diminishing? Have
    the penalties been increased? If so, in what way?

5. Improvement Of The Condition OfThe Workers And 6. Ditto Of The Peasants

Every success achieved in economic development improves the condition of
    the workers and peasants. But, first, here again departmental
    narrow-mindedness and the lack of co-ordination are doing a great deal of
    harm. And, second, these questions must be brought up well to the fore to
    allow a careful observation of the results achieved in this sphere. What
    exactly has been achieved? In what way? Answers to these questions are
    essential.

Weariness and in some cases downright exhaustion as a result of the long
    years of war, first the imperialist war and then the Civil War, are so
    great that it is absolutely essential to make special efforts to improve
    the condition of the workers and peasants. Very far from everything is
    being done that could and should be done, even with our meagre resources.
    By no means all the departments and agencies are concentrating on it. It is
    therefore a matter of urgent necessity to collect and study local
    experience in this field. The reports should be compiled as precisely,
    fully and carefully as possible. If that is done, it will at once become
    evident which departments lag most and where. We shall then secure an
    improvement more quickly through a common effort.

7. Increasing The Number OfGovernment Officials In Economic Development

It is extremely important for us to enlarge this group of workers, but
    very little systematic effort is being made to do so. Under capitalism, the
    individual proprietors strove to obtain—secretly from one another,
    and tripping each other up—the services of good salesmen, managers
    and directors. It took them decades to do this, and only a few of the best
    firms achieved good results. Today, the workers’ and peasants’
    state is the “proprietor “, and it must select the best men for
    economic development; it must select the best administrators and organisers
    on the special and general, local and national scale, doing this publicly,
    in a methodical and systematic manner and on a broad scale. Now and again
    we still see traces of the initial period of the Soviet power—the
    period of fierce civil war and intense sabotage, traces of Communists
    isolating themselves in a narrow circle of rulers, being fearful or
    incapable of enlisting the services of sufficient numbers of non-Party
    people.

We must set to work quickly and energetically to correct this. A number
    of capable and honest non-Party people are coming to the fore from the
    ranks of the workers, peasants and intellectuals, and they should be
    promoted to more important positions in economic work, with the Communists
    continuing to exercise the necessary control and guidance. Conversely, we
    must have non-Party people controlling the Communists. For this purpose,
    groups of non-Party workers and peasants, whose honesty has been tested,
    should be invited to take part, on the one hand, in the Workers’ and
    Peasants’ Inspection, and on the other, in the informal verification
    and appraisal of work, quite apart from any official appointment.

In their reports to the C.L.D., the local bodies, particularly in thevolosts,uyezdsand districts, which have the best
    knowledge of the worker and peasant masses, should give lists of non-Party
    people who have proved their honesty at work, or who have simply become
    prominent at non-Party conferences, or who command universal respect in
    their factory, village,volost, etc., and should indicate their
    assignments in economic construction. By work is meant official position as
    well as unofficial participation in control and verification, regular
    attendance at informal conferences, etc.

There must be regular replies to these questions, for otherwise the
    socialist state will be unable to organise correctly the enlistment of the
    masses in the work of economic development. There are any number of honest
    and loyal workers. There are many of them among the non-Party people, but
    we do not know them. Only local reports can help us to find them and try
    them out in wider and gradually expanding fields of work, and cure the evil
    of isolation of Communist Party cells from the masses, an evil that is in
    evidence in many places.

8. Methods And Results OfCombating Bureaucratic Practices And Red Tape

At first, most answers to this question will probably be very simple:
    methods—nil; results—nil. The decisions of the Eighth
    All-Russia Congress of Soviets have been read and forgotten.

But although the situation in this field is deplorable, we shall
    certainly not imitate those who give way to despair. We know that in Russia
    bureaucratic routine and red tape are mostly due to the low standard of
    culture and the consequences of the extreme ruin and impoverishment
    resulting from the war. This evil can be overcome only by strenuous and
    persistent effort over a long period of years. Therefore, we must not give
    way to despair, but make a new start every time, pick it up where it was
    abandoned, and try diverse ways of achieving our goal.

The reorganisation of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection;
    enlistment of the services of non-Party people with and without this
    inspection; legal proceedings; reduction and careful selection of staffs;
    verification and co-ordination of the work of the various departments, and
    so on and so forth—all these measures, everything indicated in the
    decisions of the Eighth Congress of Soviets, all the measures and methods
    mentioned in the press must be systematically, steadily and repeatedly
    tried out, compared and studied.

Theguberniaeconomic councils, and all the other bodies
    co-ordinating and directing economic development in the localities, must
    insist on the implementation of measures prescribed by the law and
    indicated by practical experience. Local experience must be pooled. Answers
    to this question must be sent in to the C.L.D., regardless of how hard it
    may be at first to teach people to give exact, full and timely answers. The
    C.L.D. will see to it that this is done. It will undoubtedly produce good
    results, even if not as quickly as is expected by those who tend to reduce
    the “combating of red tape” to a mere phrase (or to a
    repetition of whiteguard, Socialist-Revolutionary and also Menshevik,
    gossip) instead of working hard to take definite steps.

Second Group Of Questions

9. Revival Of Agriculture: A) Peasant Farming; B) State
    Farms; C) Communes; D) Artels; E) Co-Operatives; F) Other Forms Of
    Collective Farming

The briefest summaries, giving the figures of the reports sent to the
    respective departments, with the date on which each report was sent.

More detailed information—not in every report, but periodically,
    every four or six months, and so forth—on the more important aspects
    of local farming, results of surveys, the major measures adopted, and their
    verified results.

Exact information must be given at least twice a year on the number of
    collective farms (all types,b-f), classified according to the
    degree of organisation—good, fair and unsatisfactory. A typical farm
    in each of the three groups must be described in detail at least twice a
    year, with exact data on size, location, production performance, its
    assistance to peasant farming, etc.

10. Revival Of Industry: A) Large-Scale Industry
    EntirelyControlled By The Centre; B) Large-Scale IndustryControlled Wholly Or Partly By Local Bodies; C) Small,Handicraft, Domestic, Etc., Industries

The answers should be on the same lines as those for the preceding
    section. As regards category A, the local bodies, which have opportunities
    for making a close observation of the work of large national
    establishments, their influence on the neighbouring population, and the
    attitude of the population to them, must, in every report, give information
    on these establishments, the assistance given to them by local bodies, the
    results of this assistance, the assistance rendered to the local population
    by these establishments, their most urgent requirements, defects in their
    organisation, etc.

11. Fuel: A) Firewood; B) Coal; C) Oil; D) Shale;E) Other Types Of Fuel (Waste Fuel, Etc.)

The same as for the two preceding questions: the briefest summaries,
    giving the figures of the reports sent to the respective departments and
    dates on which they were sent.

Detailed information on major points, on what is outside the scope of
    the department, on local co-ordination of work, etc.

Special attention must be paid to economising fuel. What measures are
    being taken? What are the results?

12. Food Supplies

Summary of reports to the Commissariat for Food, following the same
    rules as above.

Market gardening and suburban farming (connected with industrial
    establishments). Results.

Local experience in organising school meals, the feeding of children,
    dining-rooms, public catering in general, etc.

Bi-monthly summaries in two figures are obligatory, that is, total
    number of persons receiving food, and total quantity of foodstuffs
    distributed.

In every large consuming centre (large or medium towns, military
    institutions in special settlements, etc.) we are feeding many extra
    people, former government officials who have crept into Soviet agencies,
    bourgeois lying low, profiteers, etc. There must be a determined drive to
    sift out these superfluous mouths who are breaking the fundamental law: He
    who does not work shall not eat. For this purpose, a responsible
    statistician must be appointed in all such places to study the returns of
    the census of August 28, 1920, and current statistical returns, and submit
    a signed report on the number of extra consumers every two months.

13. Building Industry

Answers must be on the same lines as the preceding. Local initiative and
    self-reliance are particularly important in this sphere and must be given
    particularly wide scope. Detailed information on the major measures and
    results is obligatory.

14. Model And Hopeless Enterprises And Establishments

A description of every enterprise, establishment and office connected
    with economic development and meriting the designation of model, or at
    least outstanding, or successful (in the event of there being none in the
    first two categories) is obligatory. Names of the members of the management
    boards of these establishments. Their methods. Results. Attitude of the
    workers and the population.

The same as regards hopeless and useless enterprises.

Of special importance is the question of closing down enterprises that
    are not absolutely essential (hopeless ones, such as might be closed down
    and their operations transferred to a smaller number of larger enterprises,
    etc.). Statistical summary of such superfluous establishments, their number
    and the order in which the Republic should gradually dispense with
    them.

15. Improvement In Economic Work

Enumerate major and model cases of improvements introduced by inventors
    and workers of exceptional ability. Give names; enumerate experiments which
    the local bodies regard as important, and so forth.

16. Bonuses In Kind

This is one of the most important factors in socialist development. The
    enlistment of labour is one of the most important and difficult problems of
    socialism.

Practical experience in this field must be systematically collected,
    recorded and studied.

Obligatory bi-monthly reports showing how many bonuses issued, what the
    bonuses consist of, what branch of industry (separately forestry and all
    other branches of work). A comparison of the results, output, with the
    number of bonuses in kind issued?

Have there been any cases of bonuses being converted into a wage
    reserve? Report each case separately.

Have bonuses been issued to conspicuously successful enterprises and
    individual workers? Give exact details of each case.

Investigate: can a local product be obtained (for export, or one
    particularly valuable for use in Russia) by increasing the bonuses in kind
    by a given quantity? This is highly important, because if this survey is
    properly conducted across the country we shall discover many valuable
    products which we could profitably export, even if we have to import a
    certain quantity of goods for the bonuses in kind.

17. The Trade Unions. Their Part In Production

Theguberniatrade union councils and theuyezdtrade
    union bodies must immediately appoint reporters and their deputies who
    must, on their own, and with the help of local statisticians, draw up
    bi-monthly reports on the subject.

As regards production propaganda, give exact facts and figures on
    lectures, meetings and demonstrations, with the names of organisers,
    etc.

But of even greater importance than production propaganda are the facts
    about the part the factory committees and the trade unions in general
    actually play in production. Forms of participation? Describe every typical
    case. Practical results. Compare establishments where the participation of
    the trade union in production is well, or fairly well, organised, with
    those where it is not.

The question of labour discipline is particularly important. Reports on
    the number of absentees are obligatory. Compare factories where labour
    discipline is bad with those where it is good.

Methods of improving labour discipline.

Comrades’ disciplinary courts. How many, and when established? How
    many cases examined per month? Results?

18. Stealing

While some organisations are aware of this widespread evil and are
    fighting it, there are others which report that “in the department,
    office or factory in our charge, there is no stealing", “everything
    is in order”.

Precise bi-monthly reports are obligatory. How many offices,
    establishments, and so forth, send in information? How many do not?

Brief summary of this information.

The measures taken to combat stealing.

Are managers, management boards, or factory committees called to account
    (for laxity in combating stealing)?

Are people searched? Are other methods of control employed; if so, what
    are they?

Is the new law on commodity exchange, and on the permission given the
    workers to retain part of their output for this purpose, having the effect
    of reducing stealing? Give precise details.

Local warehouses, that is, warehouses located in the given district, and
    belonging to the state or to the local authorities. Brief summary of the
    reports on these warehouses, giving the date on which each was sent.

Reports by the local authorities on state warehouses. Methods of
    protection. Stealing. Number of persons employed, etc.

19. Profiteering

Extent of this according to local information. Predominating type of
    profiteer. Workers? Peasants? Railway employees? Other Soviet employees?
    And so forth.

State of the railways and waterways.

Measures to combat profiteering and results obtained.

What records are being kept of profiteers and profiteering?

20. Use Of Army Units For Labour

Labour armies. Composition, numerical strength, and performance. Methods
    of accounting? Attitude of the local population?

Other forms of using army units—ditto universal military training
    units—for labour purposes.

Numerical strength of local army units—ditto local universal
    military training administration, and number of youths undergoing training
    in the units.

Concrete cases of employment of youths undergoing universal military
    training and Red Army men for definite forms of control work, sanitary
    inspection, help to the local population, various economic operations. Give
    a detailed description of each case, or if there are a number of cases give
    two typical ones: the most and the least successful.

21. Labour Service And Labour Mobilisation

How are the local departments of the People’s Commissariat for
    Labour organised? What are they doing?

Brief summaries of their reports sent to the People ‘s
    Commissariat for Labour; give date on which each report was sent.

Describe, not less than once in four months, two typical cases of labour
    mobilisation; the most and the least successful.

Enumerate purposes for which labour service was enforced. Total figures
    of the number engaged and results of work done.

What part do the local departments of the Central Statistical Board play
    in organising labour service and labour mobilisation?

Third Group Of Questions

22. Regional And Local Economic Councils

When and how were the economic councils established in the localities at
    region,gubernia,uyezdandvolostlevel? How is
    their work co-ordinated between themselves and with the village committees,
    the factory committees?

Economic councils of district Soviets in big towns. Their composition,
    work, how is the work organised, relations with the city Soviets?

Are there any district committees and district economic councils? Are
    they necessary? Is it necessary to set up the larger factory or industrial
    settlements, with their environs, as separate areas, and so forth?

23. Gosplan (The State General Planning Commission Of The
    C.L.D.)And Its Relationships With Local Economic Bodies

Are there any regional bodies of Gosplan? Or special representatives of
    the latter? Or groups of experts acting in such a capacity?

Is the work of the local bodies co-ordinated with Gosplan’s? If
    so, how? Is such co-ordination necessary?

24. Electrification

Have theguberniaanduyezdlibraries copies of the Plan
    for the Electrification of the R.S.F.S.R., which was submitted as a report
    to the Eighth Congress of Soviets? If so, how many copies? If not, it shows
    that the local delegates to the Eighth Congress of Soviets are dishonest
    and ought to be expelled from the Party and dismissed from their
    responsible posts, or else they are idlers who should be taught to do their
    duty by a term of imprisonment (at the Eighth Congress of Soviets,
    1,500-2,000 copies were handed out for local libraries).

What measures have been taken to carry out the decision of the Eighth
    Congress of Soviets to conduct extensive propaganda of the electrification
    plan? How many articles on the subject have appeared in the local
    newspapers? How many lectures have been delivered? Number of persons
    attending these?

Have all local workers with theoretical or practical knowledge of
    electricity been mobilised for the purpose of delivering lectures on, or
    teaching, the subject? Number of such persons? How is their work being
    conducted? Are the local or nearest electric power stations utilised for
    lectures and purposes of instruction? Number of such stations?

How many educational establishments have included the electrification
    plan in their syllabus, in conformity with the decision of the Eighth
    Congress of Soviets?

Has anything practical been done towards carrying out this plan? Or any
    electrification work outside the plan? If so, what has been done?

Is there a local plan and schedule of work on electrification?

25. Commodity Exchange With Foreign Countries

It is absolutely obligatory for all border areas to answer this
    question, but not only for them.uyezdsandgubernias
    adjacent to border areas also have opportunities for engaging in such
    commodity exchange and observing how it is organised. Furthermore, as
    indicated above (Point 16: Bonuses in Kind), localities even very remote
    from the border have opportunities to engage in commodity exchange with
    foreign countries.

State of the ports? Protection of the border? Volume and forms of trade?
    Brief summaries of the reports on this sent to the People’s
    Commissariat for Foreign Trade, giving the date on which each report was
    sent.

Supervision of the work of the People ‘s Commissariat for Foreign
    Trade by the local economic councils? Their opinions on practical
    organisation and results?

26. Railway, Water And Local Transport

Brief summaries of the reports sent to the appropriate department,
    giving date on which each report was sent.

State of affairs appraised from the local standpoint.

Defects in the transport system. Measures taken to improve it and their
    results?

The state of local transport facilities, and measures taken to improve
    them.

27. Press Publicity For Economic Work

Local publications andEkonomicheskaya Zhizn.How is economic
    work treated in the press? Participation of non-Party people? Verification
    and appraisal of practical experience?

Circulation of local publications and ofEkonomicheskaya Zhizn? Are they available at the libraries and accessible to the public?

Publication of pamphlets and books on economic development. Give list of
    the publications issued.

Demand for foreign literature: to what extent is it satisfied.? Are the
    publications of the Bureau of Foreign Science and Technology delivered? If
    so, what opinion is expressed about them? Other foreign publications in
    Russian and other languages?

Fourth Group Of Questions

This group should include questions chosen at the discretion of and
    suggested by the local bodies themselves, and by individuals; moreover,
    these questions may have a direct or indirect, close or remote, connection
    with economic development.

These reports must be drawn up in co-operation with the members of the
    local staffs of the Central Statistical Board. Whether this is done by
    them, or any other persons, is up to the local economic council to decide,
    but the co-operation of theguberniastatistical bureau
    anduyezdstatisticians is obligatory. Every report and every answer
    to a question, if written by different persons, must be signed by the
    author, giving his official position, if he holds one. Responsibility for
    the reports rests on the authors, and the local economic councils as a
    whole, and it shall be their duty to send in regular, punctual and truthful
    reports.

Wherever there is a shortage of local workers, courses of instruction in
    the compilation of reports must be organised under the supervision of
    statisticians and comrades, specially appointed for the purpose (from the
    Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection, and other bodies). The names
    of the persons responsible for these courses and the schedule of
    instruction must be published.

May 21, 1921

[1]Lenin
    worked on the draft Instructions at the same time as he was preparing a
    draft decision of the C.L.D. (Council of Labour and Defence), entitled
    “On Local Economic Meetings, Records and Reports, and Guidance by the
    C.L.D.’s Instructions”. Lenin made a thorough study of local
    documents on economic meetings and the first NEP measures. On May 20, 1921,
    the C.L.D. referred the draft Instructions and the draft decision to a
    special commission, which published the Instructions as a pamphlet because
    it was important to discuss them immediately. Members of the Presidium of
    the State Planning Commission and officials of departments and local bodies
    were invited to help edit the two drafts. On Lenin’s proposal they
    were widely discussed by the working people. On May 24, they were discussed
    by the Fourth Congress of Economic Councils. On May 25, the Fourth
    All-Russia Congress of Trade Unions instructed the newly elected All-Russia
    Central Council of Trade Unions to consider the drafts and to insert the
    necessary amendments and addenda. The Tenth All-Russia Conference of the
    R.C.P.(B.) approved the draft Instructions, authorising the All-Russia
    C.E.C. Communist Group to take steps to got them adopted as law. On May 30,
    both drafts were discussed at the Third Session of the All-Russia Central
    Executive Committee, where Lenin delivered a speech. The session adopted
    them as a basis and referred them to a commission. Lenin introduced a
    number of editorial amendments to the C.E.C. decision, “On Local
    Economic Meetings", just before its final approval. On June 30, both drafts
    were adopted by the Presidium of the C.E.C. Because the Instructions
    defined the tasks of recording and reporting for all Commissariats and not
    only the economic ones, they were called “Instructions of the Council
    of People’s Commissars and the Council of Labour and
    Defence”.

Lenin believed it was highly important to give the
    working people a thorough explanation of these Instructions and put them
    into practice as soon as possible.